Pizza making has become a successful industry serving countless individuals. Pizza pies typically have an annular (round) configuration, although square and rectangular-shaped pizzas are also known and have had some recent acceptance in the consumer market. Toppings such as cheese, meat, and/or vegetables are distributed across the surface of the pizza pie within the area bounded by the crust, and the pie is baked in an oven for a short period of time. After the cooked pizza is removed form the oven, the pizza is sliced into, e.g., wedges or squares.
While automation in the industry has brought rapid and efficient means for mixing, kneading and cooking the pizza dough into a finished pizza pie, it is applicant's belief that there has been little innovation in the configuration of the pizza pie itself (besides the above-mentioned square or rectangular peripheral configurations). In applicant's experience, the pizza pie includes a substantially flat central surface area with a raised crust around only the outer peripheral edge of the pie. When the pizza is sliced, only a small segment of crust accompanies each slice of pizza. Moreover, if the pizza is sliced into squares, it is possible that the inner squares of the pie will fail to have any crust on them whatsoever.
Applicant believes that there is a consumer demand for a pizza pie which has crust formed at locations other than just around the outer peripheral edge of the pie, such that almost any slice of pizza (be it wedge-shaped or square-shaped) will preferably have multiple segments of crust accompanying it. Applicant believes that such a pizza pie has better texture, flavor, and aesthetic appeal.
Certain dough forming devices and techniques are already known in the art, some of which are applicable to pizza pies. For example, Sprenzel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,027; Spinosa, U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,185; Malnory, U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,074; LaMonica, U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,071; and Lauter, U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,169, disclose molds and frames for forming dough into a flat, round configuration, such as typically found with pizza pies. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 883,296 and U.S. Pat. No. DES311,304 disclose molds for forming wedge-shaped slices in flattened, round dough. However, none of the prior devices and techniques address the problem of having only a single segment of crust (or no crust at all) on each slice of pizza.